The Rocks Book

"This is the sort of book I would have loved as a child. It’s massively visual, and packed with things you can flick through and read more about. The other thing I would have loved is looking at the maps and the amazing photos of landscapes. Yes, exactly. You have all these different, amazing places, which will awaken children’s sense of exploration of the world around them. But there is also plenty of background stuff about how we study rocks, the systems we use, and planetary-scale theories like plate tectonics. Yes, and the different layers of the Earth. Any book that has Inge Lehmann mentioned in it is onto a winner with me, she was such a pioneer and did such an interesting piece of work about the inner core and the outer core but often gets overlooked. Another thing that the panel found really positive is that it has a section on how children can study rocks themselves. It’s not just about the world as big and wide and amazing; it’s also about going to your local park or to your back garden if you have one, and thinking about the things to look for, the places you might go. And it tells them about how to do this safely as well, which is really important. There’s a whole page on where to look for rocks, but also a reminder to ask whether it’s safe and legal. This book has an immensely wide scope, but it also brings you back to the local, opening young readers up to seeing new things in the landscape around them, and giving them a good excuse to get out and about. Again, I can see some great teaching activities around this one."